Notices by Chris Trottier (atomicpoet@mastodon.social)

The Fediverse has two social classes:

1. Anime girls
2. Everyone else

In fact, anime girls are the Fediverse's version of Blue Checks.

If you're anyone important here, you're an anime girl.

After social media gets decentralized, I hope web search gets decentralized.

Google shouldn’t be dominating web search.

Reddit just hired the guy who brought ads to your Facebook and Instagram feeds!

Former Meta exec Jim Squires will be tasked with getting engineers to make more ad products for Reddit.

You wanna know why every Big Social service ends up becoming more and more alike?

Because one Big Social firm hires executives from another to do what they did at their previous company.

https://www.adweek.com/media/reddit-brings-on-former-meta-exec-as-it-continues-to-woo-marketers

Jack Dorsey explaining exactly why no single company should own a social media platform.

I can’t block this racist on Bluesky.

I can only mute him.

Sorry, the sabotage of Twitter is not a “disaster for democracy”—it’s the logical and inevitable endpoint of surveillance capitalist control of our communications infrastructure.

Those who control a message’s delivery system control the message.

Twitter was always owned by surveillance capitalists—it NEVER served democracy.

A self identified “realist” just told me, “Decentralization is unachievable idealism.”

Really? One company owns the entire Internet?

HTTP is one company’s proprietary API that can be denied to you on a whim?

You have to pay a license to code with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript?

Oh, wait—that isn’t the present reality at all. I can start my own web server whenever I want.

Now I have done the same with ActivityPub which, like HTML and CSS, is validated by the W3C.

But sure—idealism 😉

Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky, believes that Bluesky can do three things better than Mastodon:

1. Account portability
2. Global discovery
3. Curation / moderation

Having used both services, I don’t believe Bluesky has proven that its approach is superior—yet.

Because it only has one node right now, that limits its proof of scale.

https://www.theverge.com/23686778/bluesky-ceo-jay-graber-interview-decentralized-social-media-twitter-mastodon

@fediversenews

Dear journalists, please stop referring to Mastodon as “Web3”.

While Mastodon is decentralized, it doesn’t utilize blockchain or token-based economics.

While you may believe this buzzword makes you sound smart to readers, it really just generates confusion.

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2023/04/social-networks-face-the-wisdom-of-crowds/

@fediversenews

Just joined the Bluesky closed beta. I’m @atomicpoet.bsky.social

I’m trying this out. It’s supposed to be Mastodon’s future rival.

Bluesky is not compatible with Mastodon right now. While Mastodon uses ActivityPub protocol, Bluesky uses AT protocol.

What can Bluesky do that Mastodon can’t? Offer nomadic identity.

Keep in mind, though, that there’s Fediverse server software—like Hubzilla—that offers that future, and they’re compatible with Mastodon.

https://bsky.app/profile/atomicpoet.bsky.social

God damn, the amount of people I'm blocking today!

To review what will get you blocked:

1. Don't try to content police my posts
2. Don't be a concern troll regarding causes that I won't compromise on
3. Don't be a Karen (yes, male Karens exist too)
4. Don't be a reply guy trying to show off expertise that you clearly don't have
5. Don't hijack threads to push your own content

Most people are awesome, but bad actors are definitely increasing.

Of course abortion rights matter. Yeah, we should all listen to people with a uterus, and hear about their lived experiences.

But white feminists should stop being such Karens and consider that other people matter too.

You’re not the only ones being deprived of your human rights.

It’s a very American white cis feminist thing to say that the abortion pill ban is the only thing that matters right now.

* Mass shootings are increasing
* Black lawmakers are denied their place in government
* Transgender people are denied their human rights

And that’s just happened recently.

Yeah, I tend to think there’s other concerns that matter—and you all should start hearing from people affected by them.

Maybe you should also consider what’s happening in the rest of the world.

You know why certain people don’t want kids to be taught “wokeism”?

Because if kids find out what “woke” actually means, they’ll discover that they have more in common with people who exist in the margins than privileged billionaires.

This is why the likes of Elon Musk want to “own” social media so badly.

They believe if they own the means of communication, they own our thoughts too.

Everything that’s happening in the world right now is interconnected.

The same people who are banning abortion are the same who allow mass shootings to continue to happen.

And it’s no accident that Elon Musk is throttling Substack right now.

This is why one particular human rights violation doesn’t exist in a silo.

I spend a good portion of my time talking about social media. There’s a reason for this.

1. Surveillance capitalism is a greater threat than most people realize
2. Fascists exploit Big Social to their benefit
3. Social media is actively being used to censor activists

I feel I have something to contribute to that conversation since I’ve worked in the social media industry for much of my adult life.

For other topics, I’d rather pass the mic—not because I don’t care but because I do.

If you want to know who I stand with, it’s with:

1. The teenage girl who’s forced to carry her pregnancy to term
2. The African-American man who got “randomly” stopped by police at an intersection
3. The indigenous elder denied clean drinking water
4. The transwoman scared to go to the bathroom
5. The young man sent to war and had his limbs blown off
6. The refugee denied asylum

I’m on their side.

Now that you know that, go follow and listen to people with those lived experiences.

A source of new Fediverse accounts is dev.brighteon.social.

46,862 were discovered during the past day.

Brighteon is known for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories all over Facebook and Twitter, and it looks like they’re trying their hand at the Fediverse now.

I’ve looked at the accounts on that server, and the overwhelming majority look like bots. The goal seems to be spamming misinformation.

I recommend putting brighteon.social on #Fediblock.

https://botsin.space/@mastodon_daily_active_users/110107223841240128

🚀 PLEASE BOOST 🚀

@TexasObserver is not dead yet! You can save them!

They have set up a GoFundMe page to raise $100,000 and they’re halfway there!

If the goal is reached, staff keep their jobs—and a truly innovative publication lives another day!

Not only does @TexasObserver write compelling stories, they are a true Fediverse innovator who run their own Mastodon server!

Open your hearts and your wallets! Please donate now!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/laid-off-texas-observer-journalists-and-staff

Can't get over the fact Linux Torvalds (@torvalds) is running Akkoma!

And not only that, kernel.org's official Fediverse server is running on Akkoma too!

Whether he realizes it or not, that's quite a political choice 😁

Whatever @torvalds uses is usually interpreted as an endorsement.

So think about it:

1. He's on the Fediverse
2. He's NOT running Mastodon
3. He's running Akkoma, NOT Pleroma

Further reading: https://coffee-and-dreams.uk/development/2022/06/24/akkoma.html